Rest

“You’re playing your guitar again? What song are you practicing now?” – a friend of mine

“…Nothing. Just fiddling around” – me

“Nothing” is not a word I’ve come to associate with myself for the past month or so. But with no playtime in sight for the next week or so, and all deadlines met for the foreseeable future, I can finally say that these past few days have been restful for me.

Restful is loosely defined. For some, rest can mean going to the gym and sweating off the stress of a hard day’s work. For others, it’s a hearty, savored, “mmmmmthat’sgooood” meal after being on “budget eats” for longer than they can remember. For still others, it’s staring blankly into space while placing conscious thoughts inside their “nothing boxes” for a few hours or so (for what it’s worth, I fit nicely into that last group of people).

It’s also a time to collect and distill our thoughts (not two words immediately correlated with thinking, but it’s NOT a recipe for a new energy drink that I’m planning to sell the National Basketball Association. Hey, there’s a plan.). We rush through life at a billion miles per hour it’s pretty easy to let the right question slip our minds: what exactly did we learn? (trivia hint, it’s got nothing to do with Excel files, pie charts, three-letter acronyms and big words that we say without thinking just to make ourselves look smarter)

-that workmate complaining about a job he doesn’t like? Sometimes all he needs is a sympathetic ear for him to vent to. That will do him more good than an hour’s holier-than-thou sermon about “if a man does not work, he does not eat, so get off your lazy butt”.

-that despite dressing more business-esque and statuesque than the cleaning lady/guy, they probably do as much work, if not more, than us pimped-up business guys. It wouldn’t hurt to give them a smile, a “good morning” and open the door for them every once in a while (and lest anyone accuse me of being pretentious, I too have been guilty of forgetting to do that. Ouch. That’s my ego screaming at being bruised).

-that tongue lashing you got from your boss/supervisor/teacher/grand poo-bah? Take what you can for improvement’s sake and move on. No one ever died from a tongue lashing and neither should you. You’re stronger than that.

-that dream that seems impossible to reach? Feel like you’re in an academic/corporate treadmill to nowhere? There is no such thing as a “dream job” or “dream course” off the bat. Those are direct correlations of hard work and asking for God’s will in your life. And, oh, lots of self-discipline, like showing up to class or work when it’s sometimes “the right thing to do” instead of “fuuuuun”.

And sometimes, just sometimes, it’s good to be restful to just thank God for the chance to be alive. That kinda gets lost in the hustle and bustle of living, which is okay, because we’re forgetful humans, which means we just need to be reminded from time to time. Especially when we’re feeling like Bigfoot about to use our big feet to smash the alarm clock that just woke us up.

Sorry if it got heavy real quick, but I guess that’s the stuff I was able to distill from my few days of rest. But not to worry. Back to the nothing box I go. I might not even be able to finish this sentenc

Just kidding, of course. And if there’s any other thing that got rest this week, it’s my Number One, who spent about a month in a gig bag. And, wow, it’s my anniversary at WordPress. Amazing. Yep. Back to the box I go.